Great Britain's Simon Yates marked his senior Track Cycling World
Championships debut with a stunning gold in the men's points race at the
Minsk Arena.

The 20-year-old from Bury rode maturely and impressively throughout the 160-lap (40-kilometre) event, which features 16 sprints, to claim a sensational victory in an event which could return to the Olympics in 2016.

He accumulated 35 points, to win by one from Eloy Teruel Rovira of Spain, with Russia's Kirill Sveshnikov third on 30 points. Yates was in contention throughout but made his move late.

He raced for one point at the 14th sprint and continued his effort to join the lead group, distancing himself from his rivals. Five points in the penultimate sprint took Yates to within one point of the lead, held by Spain's Teruel Rovira.

The lead group were caught with six-and-a-half laps to go, with Yates' main rivals brought back to the bunch. But the Briton had the skill and speed to claim third on the final sprint to finish with a world champion's rainbow jersey at the first attempt.

It was a ride which will have left his coach Chris Newton impressed. Newton won bronze in the points race in Beijing in 2008 before the event was dropped from the Olympic programme.

In the women's sprint, Becky James advanced to tSaturday's semi-finals with apparent ease, winning her best-of-three quarter-final with Australia's Kaarle McCulloch 2-0.

The 21-year-old from Abergavenny is in the form of her life and won team sprint and 500m time-trial bronze medals on the opening two days of competition and was the fastest qualifier earlier this afternoon.

She accelerated by McCulloch in the first bout to win comfortably and in the second held off the Australian to claim a 2-0 win. The last-four of the sprint takes place tomorrow, with James drawn against China's Guo Shuang in the best-of-three semi-final.

Guo beat Virginie Cueff of France 2-0 in their last-eight tie. Kristina Vogel of Germany and Hong Kong's Lee Wai Sze, the 500m time-trial champion, meet in the second semi-final.

The first World Championships on the road to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics of 2016 are taking place without the now retired Victoria Pendleton and Australia's Anna Meares, the Olympic champion, who is taking a sabbatical.

James is Britain's heir apparent to Pendleton, who won six world sprint titles - in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 - and is on course for her third medal of the competition. Three times Pendleton won three medals, most recently in 2009, but never did she win four. 0Should James succeed on Saturday, she will go for a fourth on Sunday in the Keirin.

"It's been a really good day," James said. "With sprint I take it step by step because they can be such long days and so many races so I was really happy with my qualifying, especially qualifying first in 10.9 (seconds).

"Once that's done you've just got to put it behind you and then focus on the racing because you could be the fastest qualifier but you might not race as well.

"I've just completely forgotten what position I qualified in and just focused on each race as it came and I'm through to the semi-finals now."

In the non-Olympic women's scratch race Ireland's Caroline Ryan was seeking to claim her second World Championships medal - after points race bronze in 2012 - and follow Martyn Irvine's successes on day two. Her team-mate won men's scratch gold and individual pursuit silver.

Ryan initiated the break 12 laps out in the 40-lap (10-kilometre) event and had two accomplices, but defending champion Katarzyna Pawlowska of Poland overtook her and claimed the victory, with Mexico's Sofia Arreola Navarro second.

Ryan was floundering as the line approached and she was overtaken by the pack as Russia's Evgeniya Romanyuta claimed bronze.

The Irishwoman finished seventh, one place behind Britain's Dani King, the triple team pursuit world champion.